Forest and Mill Accidents
In the days when Occupational Health and Safety standards were not documented or policed, the Rushworth forest and the sawmills of the area were places where a litany of accidents occurred. In the worst cases, this could result in the death of a worker. More often, there were serious injuries.
With the forest workers, the men were often working a long way from emergency medical assistance. It would take time to get them to help, or get one of the local doctors out to attend to them. A lot of the sawmills operated in or near towns or rural settlements, which meant that assistance was closer at hand for their workers if something went wrong.
Sawmills
It goes without saying that sawmills were inherently dangerous places to work. Often, the injuries would be sustained by the “benchman”, the person who feeds the timber into the power saw. More often than not, the injury involved the loss of a digit or digits on one hand. This in turn could mean that the injured worker would be unable to work for some time into the future, if at all, and would cause great hardship to families who were relying on their meagre income.
In 1903, an Italian by the name of Antonio Bettinelli was working at a Rushworth sawmill (possibly that of countryman Peter Venturini) when a large chunk of wood flew off the saw, hitting him in the face. His nose and face were badly lacerated, and he had to be stitched up by a local doctor.1
In the forest
There were all sorts of dangers out in the forest. In 1925, a sleeper hewer by the name of Smart was working out in the forest, felling a tree. A limb on the tree fell on him while he was working, causing “a severe gash to his head.”2
A few years later another sleeper cutter, Hiram McNichol was working in the forest when he cut his hand severely. The forest workers of the days were made of tough stuff. Hiram bandaged up his hand as best he could, hopped on his bicycle and rode the ten miles (16 km) into Rushworth to seek assistance.3
In 1904, John Allen was killed at Waranga Basin while working alone. He was chopping down a tree when a branch came down and fractured his skull. William Jones, who found the body sometime later, deposed at the inquest that it “was a very rough day. The wind was blowing very hard.”4
Dalio Cruz, the progenitor of the well-known Cruz family of Rushworth, was working in the forest about three miles (5km) out of town in 1927 with Joseph Hageman and Calvin McInnes. A tree he was felling twisted and fell on him, crushing his upper body. He was alive when his mates were able to lift the log off him but unfortunately died just over an hour later. Cruz had apparently been working in the forest for 35 years5, so even the most experienced workers were vulnerable to accidents and injury or death.
Vehicle accidents
Sometimes accidents occurred when the timber was being loaded or transported. A man called Rubeli, a resident of Bailieston, was hauling logs to a Whroo sawmill (probably Birney Bros) when he “tripped and fell beneath the wheel of the jinker, which was loaded with an 18 ft (6m) log.”6 The jinker ran over him, smashing his right thigh and his left foot. He was working alone at the time and lay in agony for two hours before being discovered by a passer-by, who facilitated his transport to the Mooroopna Hospital.
Maurice William (“Jack”) Frowd, a woodcarter of Moora South, suffered a worse fate in what was known as “The Sawmill Paddock”, near Rushworth. William Jones had cut him a load of wood, which Frowd had loaded and was transporting to its destination at the station. At the paddock gate he got down to open the gate where he was apparently run over and killed by his own wagon.7
A Nagambie resident of 30 years, McLeod, was killed when he was loading a telegraph pole “into a waggon (sic) by means of a skid.” The pole rolled off, and McLeod could not get out of the way in time. It ran over him, crushing him.8
These are just a few of the many accidents resulting in injuries, or in the worst cases – death – that occurred in the timber industry associated with the Rushworth Forest.
References: 1 Riverine Herald 9/10/1903; 2 The Argus 14/11/1925; 3 The Argus 18/8/1934; 4 PROV Inquest File no 1904/1075; 5 PROV Inquest file no 1927/1079; 6 Bendigo Advertiser 14/12/1909; 7 Murchison Advertiser 6/3/1914; 8 Shepparton Advertiser 17/4/1913
